In the mid 1700’s France, the Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte Sebastien de Valmont (John Malkovich) are wealthy and bored. They use people to suit them, whether it be for sex, money, greed, jealousy, or sheer entertainment. When the Marquise love interest chooses the younger, wholesome Cecile de Volanges (Uma Thurman), she sets out to destroy her reputation. Sebastien at first is not interested in the challenge, because he is on a quest to ruin the virtuous Madame Marie de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer). Although he acts like a nice gentleman about Marie, he finds that she was warned about his true nature by Cecile’s mother. Now, he agrees to ruin Cecile and Isabelle agrees to sleep with him if he ruins Marie. As the two start to twist the fates of these two girls for their dark purposes, they both get more and more entangled in the treachery. The deeper they get, the more dangerous it becomes for all parties involved.